"To A Brick Wall"
By Coral

Disclaimer: Janeway, Chakotay and Voyager belong to Paramount, but Paramount don't deserve them.
Dedication: I think my computer is long overdue for one. 8) So this is for my computer, and for Ella too.
Explanation: Someone said - I think it was at the JCUKjnr sleepover - that trying to talk to me whilst I was on the computer was like trying to talk to a brick wall, so this is *my* answer to the challenge about what would happen if KJ and C beamed down in the middle of *my* daily routine.

Story Index ~ Email Coral

It was a normal evening for Coral. She'd been through the Dinner Ritual: eat enough to convince your parents you weren't hungry anymore, then dash back to the computer. She'd been through the Siblingial Unit Ritual: mumble, "You can have the computer later I'm really busy downloading this incredibly important file that will hopefully prevent the computer from blowing up" whenever the SUFV or SUMV wanted the computer, then go completely blank and ignore their protests. She'd also survived the Goodnight Ritual: her PUFV coming in and saying, "Goodnight, don't stay up too late." She hoped she would not have to go through the PUMV-Comes-In-From-Work Ritual, when he would come through the door at about three am and demand to be let on the computer.
Who did he think he was, anyway? He'd paid for the computer and he paid the AOhelL bill; as far as Coral was concerned, his claim ended there. It was *her* computer, and she got first dibs. He would just have to wait until she was forced to come offline for some reason.
He would be in for a long wait.
Coral growled in frustration as AOL once more disconnected her for no reason, claiming that the AOL service had stopped responding. Banging on the keyboard somewhat harder than was strictly necessary, she typed in her password and told it to reconnect. With all the screeching from the modem, she never noticed the high pitched whine from behind her.
"Erm.. hello?," a woman's voice asked. "Can you tell us where we are, please?"
The voice was drowned out by the AOhelL woman's announcement, "Welcome to AOL." A series of clicking noises followed the announcement, and Coral visibly relaxed as various screens started appearing.
"I think it's some kind of symbiotic relationship," the woman whispered. "She seems to need this machine to survive."
"Do you think there is anyway to communicate?" This was a man's voice.
Coral barely noticed the noises; she was in a the middle of drafting an email about VVS8, and she just could *not* get the wording right. Add to that ten chat windows and three email ones, listening to "Reflection" and writing up a fic, HTMLing the JCUKjnr sleepover pictures and fighting with GeoCities, and she was stretching it - even for her. Her I'm-online-at-the-moment walls would probably not even have registered a nuclear bomb landing on her head - unless it blocked her view of the computer screen.
"I'm not certain," the woman replied. She pulled out her tricorder and started scanning.
"The words on the screen look like old English," the man commented. "Although the puncuation looks odd. Why would anyone use a semi colon followed by a hyphen followed by a closing bracket? Especially when there's no opening bracket?" He looked at the unresponsive Terran girl. "I assume she is still alive?"
The woman shrugged. "Maybe it's a colloquialism. And I'm reading lifesigns; she's not dead." She walked a little closer and asked, "Hello? Who are you?" She reached out a hand to put it on the girl's arm, but the speed at which her fingers were flying over the keyboard scared the woman off.
"Maybe we'd be better beaming back up to Voyager," the man suggested. "We don't seem to have struck lucky with this one; she obviously isn't going to help us."
The woman sighed. "We'll have to try elsewhere." She closed the tricorder, and its merry warbling - which hadn't caught the attention of the near comatose girl either - stopped.
"Don't worry, Kathryn. We'll find someone." The man took the woman's hand in his and squeezed tightly.
"I know, I know... but I can't help shaking the feeling that this marriage of ours will be doomed to failure at this rate."
"Don't say that." He kissed her gently on the cheek. "Let's beam elsewhere, and continue our search."
"Janeway to Voyager. Two to beam up."
The transporter whined again, snatching away the two people in a shimmer of blue sparkles. This time, the high-pitched whine caused Coral to look over her shoulder, expecting to see some conspiracy to throw her off the computer; or maybe the men in white coats materialising.
"What was that you said, Deanna?" she asked, turning back to the Deanna Doll. "That was Janeway and Chakotay beaming back to Voyager? Don't be stupid!" And, with that, she turned back to the life-support machine more commonly known as her computer.

=/\=End=/\=

"You can't sleep, you can't eat,
There's no doubt, you're in deep.
Your eyes are blank, your fingers fly,
The Internet is all you need..."